@HiddenCash drops found in Old Pasadena, San Marino

Cassandra Mercury, 27, of Pasadena found $145 from @HiddenCash in Old Pasadena. (Photo by Lauren Gold)

Update: Cassandra Mercury 27 of Pasadena found $145 in Old Pasadena, Soraya Gonzalez, 43, of Azusa, found the second @HiddenCash in San Marino and third @HiddenCash was found by Robert Ramirez of South Pasadena.

Hours after dropping three envelopes stuffed with money around a Burbank shopping center and causing a media and crowd frenzy, the mysterious benefactor known as @hiddencash posted a new clue this morning, hinting that the next drop is today in Old Pasadena.

“First clue to first drop: Little old lady was from here, and I mean the old part. Be safe. Have fun. Pay it forward,” according to the latest Tweet.

The hint for another hunt on Twitter came hours after @hiddencash posted a letter early Friday urging people to be careful when scavenging through public areas.

“There have been large crowds lately. Please walk and drive safely,” according to a long essay linked to Twitter. “A young woman ran right in front of my car a few days ago. I will do my best to pick locations that are safe, but please use common sense and caution. Please also be respectful to the locations themselves and surrounding businesses. And be kind and happy with each other, as that’s what this is all about.”

The essay came after @HiddenCash dropped envelopes of cash around Burbank’s Empire Center area Thursday night, attracting hundreds of people scrambling through the area in a social-media-fueled scavenger hunt. @HiddenCash has created a frenzy on Twitter by hiding envelopes of cash around San Francisco and San Jose before coming to Los Angeles this week. His Twitter account, which posts clues to where the envelopes are hidden, has gained more than 339,000 followers in about a week.

But the drops have also caused crowds to gather and pedestrians to dodge in and out of traffic. Burbank police reported no injuries and no arrests, but the event caused all resources to be strained.

“It was a nightmare for us traffic-wise,” said Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn. “There was a lot of additional traffic and pedestrian traffic. Our concern was everybody was looking for the envelopes and not watching where they were walking.”

Ryburn said the department would have liked to have been notified earlier by the benefactor of the drops.

“As with everybody else, we follow him on social media to try to get an idea of where he’s going to be, but by the time we found out yesterday it was too late.

Advertisement

“Yes, our request would be we would rather have him notify the department, not because we would put barricades up or anything but for safety,” Ryburn said. “Our concern last night was if we had a medical emergency, we would not have been able to get through.”

A series of clues @HiddenCash tweeted out Thursday afternoon led followers first to Burbank then to the 5 Freeway/Empire Avenue area, then to an area near a Staples store at the Empire Center and a bus stop on Empire Avenue.

In all, three envelopes were found by treasure seekers on Thursday, containing $135, $210 and $200.

Chris Treichel of Los Feliz found an envelope containing $135 in cash on a grassy area near Empire Avenue. The $210 was found by 14-year-old Tatiana Ramirez of Pacoima. The $200 was found in a trash can by a group of people who split the cash five ways

The day before, @HiddenCash had started the first L.A. scavenger hunt with a series of clues that led to Los Feliz.

Ken Dellinger of Los Feliz had just begun following @HiddenCash on Twitter about 11 p.m. Wednesday when he realized the first clue in Los Angeles was located a few blocks from his home.

The @HiddenCash donor recently told the San Francisco Chronicle that he is between the ages of 35 and 45 and that he had just closed a real estate deal in which he made about half-a-million dollars.

“I decided even before it closed that one of the things I wanted to do with the money was something fun in SF,” the benefactor told the paper in an email interview.

In the essay, the benefactor expressed being overwhelmed with hundreds of emails asking for financial assistance.

“I like to help people, and do volunteer my time and donate to charities — however I’m sorry I can not read or respond to all of these personal requests, and that is not what the purpose of this account is,” according to the essay. “I am also doing a media blackout on all interviews in any form for the next couple weeks.”